General Introduction and my new 1969 500L

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General Introduction and my new 1969 500L

Really glad to see you haven't given up Katie.
I know how you feel with these long projects.
Sometimes life changes from when you start a project. That's why there are so many unfinished projects hidden away or sold off.
There are times when you just need a break and times when you just don't seem to be getting anywhere.
Im really impressed with the work that you have completed yourself and you should be extremely proud.
For the level of detail you have gone for I think you have taken the correct option for getting the shell finished.
Its a hell of a lot of work to get the bodywork right. And then to paint it yourself you run the risk of getting the finish wrong, runs, dry paint, contamination etc.
Im sure you would have succeeded but at least you will get it finished and 2 pack is better than cellulose in my opinion.
As you know I have had my last 2 projects sprayed by a professional. I used to paint cars for a living but I know the cost of equipment and the paint (especially if it goes wrong).
Now you will be able to get your garage clean ready for when your car comes back all nice and shiny.
Keep up the good work.
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In the words of Elbert Hubbard, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade! With the rarity of a mostly empty garage courtesy of the bodyshell being stuck in paint during lockdown, we have taken the opportunity to start preparing the remaining parts and sub-assembling what we can ahead of Buzz’s eventual arrival home.

1st of all, there are a lot of plated parts that need to be sorted. Prior to plating I measured all the bolts etc. and took a photo with a name tag of what part they were associated with. In the end we decided to send the parts off to be plated. Doing it yourself is fun but it’s very time consuming, and the plating solution seems to have degraded since I started using it, so the quality of the finish was deteriorating, which is not something I wanted.

I had the plating done at Derby Plating Services, the finish as you can see it absolutely top notch, and the price was very reasonable!

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I could have replaced all the fittings at minimal cost, but I like the fact that all the fasters are original, but now re-plated and looking as good as new.

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Then it was just a case of methodically working by a process of elimination to sort the parts out, some were more obvious than others!

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We then sorted the fasteners into compartment boxes, so when we come to rebuild the car, everything is to hand and easily located.

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There are a lot of boxes!

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Next up....rear wheel bearings and suspension bushes :slayer:
 
Continuing with our plan to begin sub assembling parts where we can, it was time to tackle the suspension bushes. When I had the rear trailing arms blasted, I left the bushings in place to protect the bushing eyelets.

The arms have been sat, fully painted for a while. Now had come the time to press the 51 year old bushings out, having read Tom, Sean and Peter’s posts on this topic, we knew this might not be plain sailing, but thanks to the tips provided therein, it wasn’t that bad. :worship:

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Last winter, my husband refreshed the suspension on his Lotus Exige, and part of that was upgrading to Nitron dampers and spherical bearings. These bearings take the place of the metalastic bushings, and are essentially rose joints. The bearings came with a special set of tools to precisely fit the Lotus wishbones...and what do you know...they also exactly fit the little fiat too! (y)

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Even with the correct tools, we still stripped quite a few nuts and threaded rod before we got all 4 bushes out. As the arms were painted we were having to be extra careful not to damage the finish.

The first step of reinstallation was to put the bushings in the freezer. Once we had cleaned the bores with fine wet and dry paper to remove the galling, fresh grease was applied and the bushings went in much more easily then the old ones came out.

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Next up was the rear wheel bearings. We also had the hub/carriers plated, along with the resilient washers. We don’t yet know if we will replace the washers or shim them, as we’ve seen some of the aftermarket parts being reported as too long/too difficult to crush. :confused:

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The original conical bearing races were in ok condition, but did have some signs of wear, so we decided to use the new ones that came with the bearing kit. We used a punch and a hammer to tap out the old bearing races, they came out pretty easily.

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Then the new races again went into the freezer to shrink them and give us a fighting chance. Meanwhile I took one of the old races and used a grinder to make it small enough to just drop into the bearing holder, so I could use it as a drift to squarely knock in the new races without damaging them. Once the races came out of the freezer the bores were greased and the new races were tapped in.

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These are now ready to fit when we come to assembling the rear suspension, we just need to work out what to do with the resilient washers, any advice gratefully received.
 
Really glad to see you haven't given up Katie.
I know how you feel with these long projects.
Sometimes life changes from when you start a project. That's why there are so many unfinished projects hidden away or sold off.
There are times when you just need a break and times when you just don't seem to be getting anywhere.
Im really impressed with the work that you have completed yourself and you should be extremely proud.
For the level of detail you have gone for I think you have taken the correct option for getting the shell finished.
Its a hell of a lot of work to get the bodywork right. And then to paint it yourself you run the risk of getting the finish wrong, runs, dry paint, contamination etc.
Im sure you would have succeeded but at least you will get it finished and 2 pack is better than cellulose in my opinion.
As you know I have had my last 2 projects sprayed by a professional. I used to paint cars for a living but I know the cost of equipment and the paint (especially if it goes wrong).
Now you will be able to get your garage clean ready for when your car comes back all nice and shiny.
Keep up the good work.
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Thanks Sean :) We have learned a lot so far from doing this project. Besides the skills, one of the main things is learning what we are good at and what we enjoy doing. We make a great team as these are different for each of us. The bodywork was enjoyable to do for the first few months and progress was satisfying but after 2 years, that changed. The project started to restrict the use of the garage due to the dust and felt a bit like a burden at times. That was a shame as we have loved doing the rest of the project. I am now convinced that we've done the right thing and next time (if there is one) I would make that decision earlier in the project.
The paint finish will definitely be superior to what we could have achieved. Having seen their work so far, we're very impressed. I'm also surprised how much paint it takes to cover such a small car :eek: Apparently, for good coverage, I chose the worse colour and it requires more coats than usual. It does look amazing though :D
 
Saturday was a glorious day, so we decided to make the most of the sunshine and unbox some parts to bring the finish up to our desired standard. Although parts are thankfully readily available and inexpensive, the finish on some of these parts is quite poor, and some are clearly made with worn out tooling etc.

For example, the front tie rods had poor paint, it rubbed off very easily, so we decided to repaint them.

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The finish on the centre drag link was better, but still not great. I want the finish of these components to match, as they are next to each other under the car.

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Likewise, the steering idler arm needed a repaint.

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The steering idler bracket was also in a raw finish, and as with the steering box itself, I painted this in a high silver to lift the finish and stop it from tarnishing.

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The casting of the steering idler has some poor flashing around the mounting holes.

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One side of this sits flush up against the body, so I removed the excess material with a file to “flatten” the back of the part so it sits flush against the body.

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We also decided to tidy up the driveshaft flanges.

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There was some excess material on the machined surface on the backside.

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A few figure of 8s on some wet and dry on glass soon tidied these up.

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The heater tunnel cover has also seen better days, a few spots of rust and with a nasty kink.

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This was easily teased back into shape with a small hammer and a block of wood.

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Although we had the original hubs, the braking surfaces are worn and scored, so we opted to buy new hubs. These were then masked up and painted, again to help preserve the appearance of the otherwise bare steel.

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The sharp transition between the cast and machined areas makes it easy to get a neat line with the masking tape, simply by rubbing with a tool until the sharp machined edge breaks the tape.

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It did however take a long time to do all four!

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The sun made the spraying/drying process much faster.

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I also got a new exhaust as the old one was cracked and full of holes. Again, the finish was poor with bad paint and marks from storage etc.

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Nothing that can’t be fixed with a quick rub down and coat of silver VHT paint.

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I think that's enough work for one day, so time to relax with homemade pizza on the wood oven (have to keep to the Italian theme after all!)

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Your work is so high quality. Very impressive the attention to detail. Your car will be one of the best out there in terms of quality and original part usage. Superb effort!

R
 
^^^ x2 I couldn't put it any better. Really excellent and an inspiration to us all. :worship:

A couple of tips (a little late, I know, but you might try them in future?):-

When using special tools to press out e.g. suspension bushes, use the largest diameter threaded rod that will fit through the bush holes, I suspect you could have used 10mm on the 500. Alternatively, omit the threaded rod and just squeeze the special tools in your bench vice. (the old way for removing/refitting bushes was to use a small and a large socket in a bench vice).

When masking up complex shapes, I've used grease/petroleum jelly applied with a finger or a small brush instead of tape. After the paint has dried, simply wipe away the grease and the unwanted paint.
You did a lovely job on those brake drums, they're now almost too nice to be hidden away behind the wheels!

One nice touch, that you might consider? :- If 'Buzz' hasn't yet received his new coat (of paint), you might still have time to get a metal model of the 500, mask off, sand/prepare and prime it and give it to the bodyshop to spray in the exact same colour as your car. This way, you'll always have an exact model replica of 'Buzz'.

Al.
 
But will Katie be able to find 'the model' that has been made to her exacting standards? Or, will she want to strip it down and re-build it?
 
^^^ x2 I couldn't put it any better. Really excellent and an inspiration to us all. :worship:

A couple of tips (a little late, I know, but you might try them in future?):-

When using special tools to press out e.g. suspension bushes, use the largest diameter threaded rod that will fit through the bush holes, I suspect you could have used 10mm on the 500. Alternatively, omit the threaded rod and just squeeze the special tools in your bench vice. (the old way for removing/refitting bushes was to use a small and a large socket in a bench vice).

When masking up complex shapes, I've used grease/petroleum jelly applied with a finger or a small brush instead of tape. After the paint has dried, simply wipe away the grease and the unwanted paint.
You did a lovely job on those brake drums, they're now almost too nice to be hidden away behind the wheels!

One nice touch, that you might consider? :- If 'Buzz' hasn't yet received his new coat (of paint), you might still have time to get a metal model of the 500, mask off, sand/prepare and prime it and give it to the bodyshop to spray in the exact same colour as your car. This way, you'll always have an exact model replica of 'Buzz'.

Al.

Thanks for the tips, we'll bear them in mind for the next one :)

That is a nice idea with the model, however we are due to visit the bodyshop tomorrow morning and I suspect the job will be finished. They re-opened on Monday and it's the only work they have on this week so I'm hoping we will be collecting it shortly. To say I am excited is an understatement :D
 
Hello again!

We’ve been very busy rebuilding Buzz, and I’ve got lots of updates to share. It’s not all been plain sailing, but we’ve made good progress despite the last few weeks being very warm in the garage. Lots of shandy was consumed in the making of this post. :p

You might remember I made a post asking for advice about some damaged threads on my steering box. This was a major problem as the suspension and steering were selected as some of the 1st components to be reinstalled.

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Luckily for us we have an excellent local engineering company who are very knowledgeable and carry every kind of tool you can imagine. I was unsure of the thread pitch/size, so I took the steering box down to the machine shop and came back with a tapered M14 1.5 die nut.

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With a little cutting fluid the die made quick work of the damaged threads.

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I also took the advice given to me a while back regarding pitting in the base of the original fuel tank, and purchased a new one. It seemed a shame to just throw away the nice and shiny refurbished fuel tank, even if it wasn't ever going to be a fuel tank again, so my husband broke out the angle grinder and and drill, and turned it into a fiat flower pot!

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I planted some bee friendly plants in there.

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There were a few other items to deal with. The door pockets were very grubby and shiny, and there was also red overspray from the last paint job inside and out. I cleaned with Meguiars APC, it's very good for shifting years of grime.

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I also gave them a coat of satin plastic paint to knock down the sheen a little. It’s a minor improvement to the aesthetics, but every little helps. I’ve also purchased some material to line these with so I can drop keys or a phone in there and not have them rattle around. This may be optimistic! :D

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After a couple of coats, they look much better than they did.

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I also decided to refurbish the heater flap, the rubber was old and very stiff, it was also split so would leak warm air into the cabin.

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My husband drilled out the old rivets holding the two sides of the flap together and sandwiching the rubber seal.

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Separated.

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The parts were then cleaned and painted, and riveted back together.

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One thing I will say is that the new rubber seal is about twice as thick as the old one, so the tabs that the spindle goes through to hold the flap in the body did not line up with the recess on the backplate. This was very annoying to fix and really highlighted how some of the modern reproduction parts are of questionable quality. This was to become a theme… :bang:

The plan once we got the body back was to try and get it onto its wheels and make it a rolling chassis, so to that end we set about rebuilding some of the suspension components.

1st up was the rebuilding of the leaf spring. You may remember we dredged this from the bottom of the ocean some time ago.

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These were cleaned back to bare steel and all rust removed, etch primed and painted black.

It was now time to press in the new bushings, I bunged them in the freezer overnight 1st to shrink them, and they went in easily enough.

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The plates that came with the leaf spring refurb kit were just bare, mild steel, and they had already begun to rust in the bags they were shipped in, which was quite disappointing. I cleaned them back to bare steel, etch primed and painted them satin black.

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I took the opportunity to lightly grease the leaves so the plastic interleaf would slide more easily. I know there are conflicting schools of thought on this regarding dirt ingress etc, but we’ll see how we get on. I also used a bolt to temporarily hold things together as I was building it.

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The complete spring ready for the retaining bands to go on.

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And the spring complete and ready to fit to the car. A paint pen is used to mark the position of a fastener anywhere where a faster is critical to...not dying. My husband is quite serious about this!

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The next job was to retrieve the body from the paint shop.

We borrowed my dad’s truck and went to collect him. Now he was freshly painted and looking perfect, this was extremely nerve wracking, especially as the bed of the truck was a good 3 ½ ft off the ground, plus another 10” for the mattress and only I’m 5’2”! The body is light, but it was very awkward, thankfully my dad and my husband, plus a couple of bodyshop guys made it much easier. I think 5’2” is the correct size to drive a bambino however! :D;)

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Finally safely back home on the dolly. I’m really happy with the bodywork, the paint almost seems to change in colour when it’s in the sun. :cool:

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Within about 20 mins of arriving home he was up on jack stands ready for the leaf spring! Despite our worries about this part (having read of horror stories and it being quite dangerous), it was very easy.

With the car relatively high on stands, we put some thick foam matting down in the front trunk and filled two large buckets with water to weigh the front down. I estimate there was about 80-100kg in there. Fitting one side is easy as the spring is not under tension. It's then simply a case of carefully jacking the opposing side of the leaf spring up to meet the body. If you have enough weight in the front the car won’t lift off the jacks by the time you have the opposing side of the spring located on the studs. I then used the water to water the garden! :idea:

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Done! I like this picture as it captures the colour of the car really well.

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You can see here I opted for a stone chip finish on the underside of the car. It's very thick and I hope will protect Buzz from the terrible UK roads and weather.

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Again, a paint pen is used to mark fastener position

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The body shop really did a great job on the paint, they even polished the areas that will be rarely seen such as the rear bulkhead.

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I think that's a big enough post for today, more updates soon!
 
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Looking amazing. Love the paint. Such detail and hard work is going into your little fella. Will you want to drive him after all this work is done ;-)

R
 
Katie, not meant as a stupid question----is your front spring the original (i.e.ex factory) or is it an 'after-market' spring (patern part)? The reason that I ask this is that very few of the 'patern' parts have the top leaf in the middle---they can be up to 10mm out! If the top leaf is not correct, the locating 'humps' will not corectly locate the spring, which will give you a real headache when it comes to setting up the wheel-alignment. The trick is to measure the distance between the centre of the the locating 'hump' (in the top leaf) and the centre of the bush at the end of the spring---this distance MUST be exactly the same. The cure is fairly simple, just a bit tedious. The reason I know about this? I suffered this problem when we re-built the front-end of my car.
 
Katie, not meant as a stupid question----is your front spring the original (i.e.ex factory) or is it an 'after-market' spring (patern part)? The reason that I ask this is that very few of the 'patern' parts have the top leaf in the middle---they can be up to 10mm out! If the top leaf is not correct, the locating 'humps' will not corectly locate the spring, which will give you a real headache when it comes to setting up the wheel-alignment. The trick is to measure the distance between the centre of the the locating 'hump' (in the top leaf) and the centre of the bush at the end of the spring---this distance MUST be exactly the same. The cure is fairly simple, just a bit tedious. The reason I know about this? I suffered this problem when we re-built the front-end of my car.

It's all original besides the plastic interleaves, rubbers and bushes
 
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